A man applied for a card from the Beachwood Library and, over two visits, withdrew 100 books. He later posted two videos, one in which he burned all of the books.

Summary

A man checked out 100 books from Beachwood Library in Beachwood, Ohio, covering Jewish history, African-American history, and LGBTQ topics, and later posted social media videos showing the books with captions referencing “cleansing” libraries before burning them.

Princeton University’s Bridging Divides Initiative alerted the library about the posts.

The books were worth about $1,700. Since they are not overdue, the library will bill the man later.

Police say the matter is civil unless he fails to pay. He is now banned from returning to the library.

  • Tedesche@lemmy.worldEnglish
    172·
    1 day ago

    This is not normal behavior. This person is a sociopath and society needs to know who he is.

    I wish people would stop throwing clinical terms around like this. Socio/psychopathy is a complicated psychiatric disorder with distinct behavioral and psychological markers, not a synonym for “evil.”

    Sadly, you don’t need a psychiatric disorder to engage in despicable behavior. “Normal” people are quite capable of being racist, sexist douchebags, and most racist, sexist douchebags are not mentally ill. Bigotry is a product of culture, not abnormal psychology.